They both jumped when the car’s headlights came on, and then went off. The horn blared for a few seconds and then just as suddenly stopped. The radio snapped to life and then went silent.
“Tell me you’ve had an electrical system go haywire like this before?” Julie asked nervously, trying her best to see through the heavy veil of white.
Kennedy didn’t answer. He moved slowly to the right side of the car, nearer to Julie.
“Something is out there, isn’t it?” she asked. Kennedy kept his eyes on the side of the road, where they could barely see the soft outline of the large pine trees.
Gabe tried his best to keep his voice even and reassuring. As much as he would have liked to scare the hell out of this woman a few days ago, he now found he wanted to reassure her that things were fine.
“Ms. Reilly, we’re in the mountains. There’s always something out there.”
A darker shade of fog seemed to break free of one of the larger trees. It passed by both of them and vanished into the whiteness in front of the car.
“Did you see that?” Julie took an involuntary step toward Gabriel.
“It went over there,” he said, pointing.
As they watched the swirling fog, the black mist appeared again. This time it formed in front of the car and stayed. The veil was about thirteen or fourteen feet in height and just about eight in width, and Gabriel could swear he could hear deep, harsh breathing. The mist didn’t move, as if it was studying the two people staring at it.
“Okay, this is the mountains, but this something doesn’t look like it belongs here.”
“Get your camera and recorder — go,” he said, so low she thought she hadn’t heard him right.
Julie stepped toward the car without taking her eyes from the hanging mist that stood its ground ten feet in front of them. “You think now is the time for taking its picture.”
“You seem so sure that it’s cognizant of what it’s doing.”
Julie scrambled around the front seat and found the small camera and recorder. “Well,” she hissed through closed teeth as she brought the camera up, “I say that because I’ve never seen two distinct shades of fog before…and add to that, the goddamn thing is breathing.”
“Point taken,” Gabriel took the small digital recorder from Julie’s hand.
A stream of darkness broke away from the main body of the mist and shot forward, collecting into the shape of a large hand. It seemed as though it was about to slap the camera out of Julie’s hand. She flinched, but the hand pulled back. It came forward again, and then stopped, moving around the camera’s lens as if it didn’t know what it was facing, or whether the camera was a danger to it or not. Julie let out a small cry as the smell hit her nostrils.
“Hold your ground,” Gabriel said. He stepped forward two paces and placed himself between the camera and the mist.
“Professor, I’m about to pee my pants. Believe me, I’m not moving.”
“You’re a long way from Summer Place, and I know you’re not that strong,” he said loudly to the mist in front of him.
The misty hand pulled away from the camera as if Gabriel had shocked it somehow. Then they heard the deep rumble of a laugh. The hand shot forward and slapped the camera out of Julie’s shaking hands. It flew twenty feet into the tree line and smashed against one of the pines.
“Did you take my student? Did you make that young man kill tonight? Who are you?”
The mist backed away as the laugh rumbled again. It was like something clearing its throat from deep inside of hell. The sound seemed to come from all around them.
“I am, that I am.”
The words were clear and made Julie shiver in the increasingly cold night.
“Is quoting God supposed to impress us?”
Just as the words cleared Gabriel’s lips, the mist came forward. This time they both saw the outline of a humanoid form. The hand came up again and struck out at Kennedy, striking him across the face. The laugh sounded again as the hand retreated. Gabriel jerked and then looked back with equal determination.
“Not very impressive. I still say you’re too far from the house to be effective.”
The laugh sounded again. Then the mist formed into a ball and moved. It came straight at Julie and then stopped, reformed and then she heard the sound of sniffing. The thing was smelling her, she realized. She cowered away and closed her eyes. The hand came up and felt her hair. The smell of the mist was penetrating her senses. She managed to open her eyes and look at Kennedy, silently pleading for him to do something.
The mist expanded and the giant hand swept out, brushing the fog aside.
“Oh God,” Julie said.
Summer Place sat in its small, peaceful valley two miles away, brightly lit and inviting. Somehow they had driven in the wrong direction.
“Home,” said the gruff, deep voice. “Come home, Gabriel.”
“Am I yours? Like the others?”
The laughter was deep and loud and this time it didn’t end.
“Stop it, stop it!” Julie shouted and ran to the open car door. Just as she reached it, it slammed closed. Then the driver’s side door slammed shut. The darkened mist shot around Julie and slammed her against the car. Gabriel stepped forward but the mist shoved him out of the way as if he were made of paper.
Suddenly the night air warmed and the sound of birds came through the fog. The mist seemed to hesitate, its laughter fading. It drifted toward the front of the car.
“There’s something else here,” Gabriel said.
“Oh God,” Julie whimpered. She slid down the side of the car until she was seated on the ground with her hands over her face.
“No, don’t you feel it? This thing doesn’t like it, whatever it is. Listen.” Turning away from the mist, he thought he could hear talking — many voices, soft and close by. The black mist seemed to hiss. Then it turned and dispersed into the thinning fog.
Gabriel pulled Julie to her feet just as the car started on its own, making them both yell in fright. Julie smashed her face and body into Gabriel’s and the unexpected force almost made his already unstable knees buckle. He strained to hear the voices, but they were slowly fading away.
“It’s over.” Kennedy stroked Julie’s hair. “Look,” he said, giving her a gentle nudge.
Julie looked up. “What?” she asked.
“Summer Place. It was never there. It tried to scare us. I was right — it doesn’t have the strength to do its magic this far from the house. It can conjure and frighten, but that all.” He stepped back around the car and opened Julie’s door, assisting her in. He then quickly went around to the driver’s side door, looking to his left once again to make sure Summer Place truly was gone. He drove off as the last of the strange fog lifted.
“What happened?” Julie asked.
“Something stopped the house from having its fun. Several somethings, it sounded like. Are you all right?”
“Fuck no I’m not all right, what the hell’s wrong with you?”
Kennedy smiled for the first time in forty minutes.
“Can I ask what is so funny?”
Kennedy held up the small digital tape recorder.
“I just recorded the opening for your television special.”
“I really don’t give a shit about that right now.” She turned away to watch the trees slip by out the window.
“Oh, I think you should open with that, followed closely by your official apology for the seven years of hell you and Jackson put me through.”
“You’ll need more than that to convince Damian Jackson,” she said, carefully not mentioning the fact that she had been convinced.
Kennedy smiled and stepped on the gas. “I think that can be arranged.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. I think Summer Place wants everyone to know it’s alive and in charge.”
“It may be in charge, but it sure as hell is not alive.”
In silence, they turned onto the highway heading for New York.